The Stoic Jew

On Living Each Separate Day as a Separate Life (Seneca: Letter #101 – On the Futility of Planning Ahead)

March 09, 2021 Rabbi Matt Schneeweiss Season 3 Episode 7
The Stoic Jew
On Living Each Separate Day as a Separate Life (Seneca: Letter #101 – On the Futility of Planning Ahead)
Show Notes

Synopsis: In today’s episode we read a beautiful excerpt from a letter about on an old theme that Seneca is a master of eloquence: the fact that we do not know when we will die. After reading the letter I reflect on a very small example of how this came to mind recently. Be sure to stick around until after the usual outro, because I remembered one more point I wanted to make before stopping the recording.
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Seneca: Letter #101
Therefore, my dear Lucilius, begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life. He who has thus prepared himself, he whose daily life has been a rounded whole, is easy in his mind; but those who live for hope alone find that the immediate future always slips from their grasp and that greed steals along in its place, and the fear of death, a curse which lays a curse upon everything else.
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Sources:
- Seneca: Letter #101; click here to access the full text of Seneca's Letter
- Tehilim 90:12; click here for the episode of TSJ on that pasuk, and check out my Tehilim shiur on it as well (Part 1 and Part 2)
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If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.
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Stoic texts:
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
Letters from a Stoic Master (Seneca)
The Discourses of Epictetus
The Enchiridion (Handbook) of Epictetus
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